Impossible Situations

Jesus was ministering to a great multitude when the people began to get hungry. He took his disciple Philip aside and asked him an important question: “Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’” (John 6:5-6).

Jesus was saying, “Look, thousands of hungry people are here. How are we going to feed them? What do you think we should do?” How incredibly loving of the Lord. He knew all along what he would do; the verse tells us so. Yet, he was trying to teach Philip something important and the lesson he wanted to impart has great significance to us today.

Our world is teetering on a precipice unprecedented in history. The present upheaval comes at a time when Christians everywhere are facing trials as never before. Multitudes sit up at night trying to figure out answers to their problems: “Maybe this will work. No, wait. Maybe that will solve it. No, that won’t work, either. What am I going to do?”

When Jesus posed his question to Philip, the disciples did not have just a bread problem, they had a bakery problem, a money problem, a distribution problem, a transportation problem, and a time problem. Add it all up and they had problems they could not even imagine. In fact, their situation was absolutely impossible.

Beloved, consider that in the midst of your impossible situation, Jesus would come to you asking, “What are we going to do about this?” He knows exactly what he is going to do; he has a plan. Yet he also wants to know how you, his servant, will face your difficulties.

Philip’s correct answer would have been, “Jesus, you are God! Nothing is impossible with you, so I am giving this problem to you right now. It is no longer mine, but yours.”

That is the response Jesus is looking for from us. I pray that you have the kind of faith that rests in the Father’s care and trusts him to come through for you in his own way and time. He can be trusted absolutely!